Ole Miss handled Alabama fairly easily on Tuesday, despite a first-half 18-0 run from the Tide.
The Rebels responded to Alabama’s run with multiple impressive scoring streaks of their own, ultimately out-shooting the Tide to score a 78-66 home win.
Here are some quick takeaways from Alabama’s loss in Oxford.
Managing Donta Hall and Collin Sexton’s injuries
Avery Johnson clearly has had success lately, knocking out four straight wins before dropping the matchup with Ole Miss.
However, I’m a little perplexed at the coach’s management of Sexton and Hall’s injuries.
Hall had surgery on his wrist before the LSU game, but amazingly managed to get minutes in both the Auburn and Mississippi State wins. This week, he was cleared for full contact by the doctors, so I was surprised to see him get only 17 minutes of action.
Game fatigue doesn’t make the risk of injuring a wrist higher, so something doesn’t compute. If it was a coaching decision, then that’s even more perplexing.
Hall posted 14 points and seven boards in those 17 minutes. If you ramp his playing time to its deserved 30 minutes, Hall could have potentially posted his best game of the year and eclipsed the 20 points and 10 rebounds with ease.
Meanwhile, Sexton played just 20 minutes on the night. In those minutes, he continued to struggle in shooting just 2 of 13 from the floor and was clearly frustrated by a lack of foul calls around the rim.
In hindsight, I think it would have been better to let Sexton work through his offensive struggles with more playing time.
I’ve never dealt with an ab injury, but it seems like the kind of injury where you can either play or you can’t. If you can, then regular minutes would seem possible. If you need to have your minutes limited, then don’t run the risk by playing at all.
The SEC is not the NBA. There aren’t 82 games in a season. A random Tuesday night in Oxford matters.
The Rebels’ hot shooting
Over the course of a 40-minute game, there are going to be a few defensive breakdowns, but even when the close-outs and the rotations are solid, there is simply no defense for good shooting.
Ole Miss shot 50 percent from the floor and 38% from deep. Shot after shot, especially when Deandre Burnett was shooting, dropped in the hole. There weren’t that many layups either. Ole Miss made contested 3-pointers and a series of long two-pointers to demoralize the Tide’s defense.
Burnett torched the defense, making 7 of his 11 shots including 4 of 5 from long range.
The Rebels’ hot shooting night was exacerbated by foul trouble on Alabama’s best perimeter defender, freshman wing Herbert Jones. He accumulated a few questionable fouls and only played 22 minutes before fouling out.
Based on the Tide’s defensive performance, I expect it to be an aberration instead of the norm.
John Petty’s impact
I’ve said before that while Sexton will get the hype, Alabama goes as John Petty goes.
Things didn’t go well for John Petty on Tuesday.
Despite leading the Tide with 27 minutes, Petty struggled to make an impact, scoring just three points on only one made field goal.
Petty’s road shooting woes continued to be a theme this season. So far in SEC play, Petty is shooting an abysmal 18 percent from 3-point range on the road. Compare that to a blistering 57 percent in SEC home games, and you’ll see the difference in Alabama’s wins and losses quickly.
For Alabama to get to the NCAA Tournament, it’ll need to be better on the road from here on out, and that success will depend largely on the shooting of Petty.